The Ocean Planet

Whales & their survival

British Marine Animals

Marinet video — The Impact of Marine Dredging

Welcome to Marinet

arinet is a community marine campaigning organisation made up of Members like you. It is incorporated as a non-profit limited liability company, offering Membership to people and organisations in both the UK and the EU, and is run by its Members on a voluntary basis. Membership is available at £1.00, and Members’ financial liability is thus limited to £1.00

Financially Marinet survives on donations from its Members, and from persons and organisations prepared to make a donation on a strictly no obligation basis. Marinet is not a charity. It is an unaffiliated campaigning, information providing organisation whose first loyalty is always to the seas and oceans which it seeks to protect.

In campaigning terms, Marinet is not prepared to accept decisions or solutions which are based on the lowest common denominator that all parties can agree to. Rather it stands for scientific truth, and advocates principles of management built on the logic of scientific evidence. Marinet is always looking to the future, and encourages its Members to engage with issues which they are interested in and to take responsibility for campaigning action.

Marinet believes in this Mission Statement:

Marinet will work with any person, academic institution or responsible agency truly committed to real time solutions, in the knowledge that the urgent needs of the marine world are not being addressed by Government and their Ministries and agencies. Marinet will engage with the issues with all its resources, and lead with original thought when it can justify such thinking. Marinet is not scared to be out on its own, will speak with a true voice, in the knowledge that this is an absolute need not presently being met by most major marine NGOs.

Campaign Actions

We provide here a brief introduction to some of Marinet’s campaigning, and you are invited to join and help with these campaigns, and to introduce new proposals for action where you feel there is a compelling need.

Aggregate Dredging

The dredging, effectively open-cast mining, of the seabed in coastal waters for sand and gravel to be used as aggregate by the construction industry — nearly all of London’s concrete is now made from marine sourced aggregate — can be hugely damaging to the marine environment. Not only does it irreparably destroy marine habitats and marine life, it can also cause severe coastal erosion and consequential damage. Marinet has worked since its beginning to limit and control the adverse impact of this industry, and this on-going work can be seen on our website.

The Great Blue

Published by Marinet, Conserving The Great Blue, is a profoundly important proposal which has been written and drawn up by Deborah Wright, Marinet member, for a paradigm changing reform of the law (United Nations Law of the Sea, known as UNCLOSThe United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty.The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty.) which governs our seas and oceans. With the health of our oceans in serious decline, not just in terms of species but also in their entire ecological structure, Conserving the Great Blue explains how and why we urgently need to change fundamentally the basis of governance, from exploitation to conservation, henceforth managing the planet’s oceans as one large single marine reserve whose integrity comes before all else. This campaign has set its sights on the United Nations, and seeks to engage nations worldwide.

Fisheries in Crisis

Fisheries in the North East Atlantic, and globally, are facing very severe problems. Many are heavily over-fished, some have become commercially extinct, and fisheries management regimes are woefully poor and inadequate. Marinet is campaigning for the rebuilding of fish stocks to the maximum levels that current ecological conditions will permit so that we can restore fish food security, rebuild the economic wealth of stocks for our fishing industry, and relieve pressure on fish stocks belonging to the world’s poorer nations which we and other richer countries now plunder following the collapse of our own stocks. Further details of this work can be seen on our website.

Marine Reserves

Scientific evidence, and practical experience, has proved that marine reserves are the single most important management tool for restoration of health to our seas and oceans. As a result governments worldwide have embraced this idea, brought laws into existence, and exclaimed loudly that they support marine reserves unreservedly. However in reality, the truth is very different. Most marine reserves are merely “paper maps” with lines drawn on the sea to indicate their boundaries whilst, practically, they are without meaning for no serious management regime exists to deliver their objectives. As a result, they are completely hollow, and little other than an illusion. Marinet is campaigning to expose this deceit, and to correct this profound failure by trying to persuade government and all commercial users (from fishing to energy, shipping and aggregate companies) to work in partnership with conservation, and to develop marine reserves which are co-located with their sites and activity. Thus for example, wind farms also become areas for marine habitat and species rebuilding, and shipping lanes become exclusive areas aimed at preventing other damaging activities. By this means, industry and the conservation ethic are united, and restoration of the degraded ecology of our seas and oceans becomes a common, shared objective from which everyone benefits. Visit our website.

Marine Pollution

Pollution comes in many forms, and Marinet campaigns on a broad front on this wide-ranging issue. Presently, our principal areas of work are focused on:

Plastic pollution:

The oceans are now severely affected by plastic waste, mostly by plastic which has degraded into tiny pieces and filaments which are frequently toxic, easily absorbed by marine life and virtually unremovable by us from the ocean. For further details of Marinet’s work in this area, click here.

Radioactivity:

Our seas have been widely used over the years as a dumping ground for radioactive waste from the nuclear power industry and, despite improvements and changes, this pollution persists and is still being added to. Radioactive material in our seas is not only injurious to marine life, but also enters our food chain and impacts on our lives. For details of Marinet’s work in this area, click here.

Sewage and Sea Bathing waters:

For many years sea bathing waters at coastal resorts have been polluted by discharges to sea of sewage. Laws have been tightened and sewage treatment works have been improved, but the contamination of bathing waters by pathogensA virus or bacterium capable of causing disease. from sewage persists. Marinet reports on the scale and location of this pollution, and what is required to eliminate it. For further details, see our website.

New Campaigns

Marinet’s campaigning is constantly changing and evolving. It is driven by the interests, engagement and decisions of its Members. If you want to participate, or to introduce a new issue, the way forward is to apply to become a Member and to submit your ideas and proposals.
See our Membership page.